This invention relates to pneumatic tires and more particularly to an improved tread for tires. It is well known in the tire industry that the choice of a particular tread involves trade-off between tire performance charactertistics in order to achieve the overall desired tire performance. Among such characteristics are those directed to wear, comfort, noise, handling under various road conditions, fuel consumption and the like. The foregoing performance characteristics are generally at odds with each other for any given tread design. For example, a tread which has good wet traction or good snow traction is generally obtained at the expense of dry road performance, handling tread wear and/or noise production; a tread which has good tread wear is generally obtained at the expense of wet traction, ride, snow traction and/or comfort; a tread which has good fuel consumption is generally obtained at the expense of wear and/or traction. Due to complex interaction between these performance characteristics, it is difficult to obtain a tread which can exhibit good wet and snow traction characteristics while still maintaining good tread wear, dry traction, handling and noise levels.
Applicants have discovered a particular arrangement by which good wet and snow traction characteristics can be obtained while obtaining acceptable levels of tread wear, handling, dry road performance, fuel consumption and noise production.